Telematics units within mobile vehicles provide subscribers with connectivity to a telematics service provider (TSP). The TSP provides the subscriber with an array of services ranging from emergency call handling and stolen vehicle recovery to diagnostics monitoring and turn-by-turn navigation. Telematics units are often provisioned and activated at a point of sale when a subscriber purchases a telematics-equipped vehicle. Upon activation, the telematics unit is utilized to provide a subscriber with the telematics services.
One of the services conventionally provided by TSPs to users of telematics units is GPS navigation, which includes the provision of Turn-by-Turn (TBT) directions. In addition to GPS navigation being provided to drivers through GPS-based navigation aid devices (referred to herein as “GPS devices”) integrated into or in communication with telematics units, GPS navigation is also provided through the use of stand-alone GPS devices.
To use GPS navigation, a user of the telematics unit enters or selects a destination, and the GPS device provides directions (e.g., through a display and/or through vocal instructions) to the user based on a calculated course from the user's current location to the user's destination. When a user does not follow the directions and goes off-course (i.e., when the position of the vehicle is not on the calculated course), the GPS device recalculates a new course for the user to take based on the vehicle's position when it goes off-course.
Conventional GPS devices provide route calculation and TBT directions according to rigid rules programmed into the devices and thus are unable to adapt to the ever-changing variable circumstances that drivers encounter on the roads.
The above body of information is provided for the convenience of the reader. The foregoing is a discussion of problems discovered and/or appreciated by the inventors, and is not an attempt to review or catalog the prior art.